Surgeons can now see and handle the body parts they will be repairing in the operating theatre before making a single cut, thanks to 3D-printed models.
The parts shown here were all used in complex reconstructive surgery on real patients. They were produced by Cavendish Imaging in London using detailed data from three dimensional CT or MRI scans.
"We're making physical what was virtual," says Andrew Dawood, the company's founder. "It's something in our hands that's tactile and tangible." Andy Coghlan

This is the 3D-printed model of the facial bones of conjoined twins Rital and Ritag Gaboura, and the open corridor of the skull by which they'd been joined since birth.

In 2011, British doctors separated the twins. The surgery was especially tricky because, unusually, the join was between the tops of the children's heads, raising the risk of brain damage or serious trauma during separation.

The lead surgeon, David Dunaway, of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, said that being able to recreate the corridor through 3D printing was the key to success. It allowed his team to see the shared internal blood vessels exactly as they would be encountered during the operation, and to experiment with the best and safest way to separate them.